Jim L Probable NDE

Experience Description:

When I was in second grade I was stricken with rheumatic fever I was only five or six years old at the time and living with my foster parents. This was due to my mother's suicide. I was young at the time but found over the years since that she had blamed herself for my father's heavy use of alcohol. But anyways the rheumatic fever caused me to have a very high fever and I had missed most of the second grade. I remember that I had to repeat it after I was better.

But sometime during my illness, I left my body (OBE) and found myself across the street in a wooded area that opened into a beautiful meadow, with a small pond in the center of it. Around the pond, there were other children at or around my same age. The children were laughing, and playing cheerfully around the edge of the water and they seemed not to have a care in the world as they invited me to join them even though they never spoke a word or made any eye contact with me I just knew that somehow I should be part of this new found happiness. I remember watching a boy and a girl on the opposite side of the pond. They were skipping and running and there seemed to be traces of glitter or gold that trailed off them only to quickly fade away when they stopped to investigate a flower or frog that they would see on the pond's edge, but quickly reappear once they moved again. The colors in the meadow were very brilliant and there seemed to be a warm yellow glow enveloping the whole area. There were also many animals and they too seemed to be caught up in the sheer love that encompassed the whole area. Just as quickly as it began I was out of the meadow and found myself looking down at myself standing in front of my foster mother she had both her hands on my shoulders. This is all I remember.

I was told a few years later that the fever had caused a heart defect and I would need to have open heart surgery before I reached the age of eighteen but when I was about to have the surgery at the age of seventeen the doctors and cardiologist found that my heart had healed itself. I wonder to this day if the good lord had started healing me the moment that I stepped into the meadow. I returned to the wooded area as a young man and found that there had never been a meadow or a pond there. The experience has stayed with me for forty four years now and it seems as clear today as it did when it happened and it never fails to lift my soul when I reflect back upon it. I've never spoke of this experience until now and only felt compelled to do so after reading some of the other testimonials on this website. I guess I kept it to myself because to me it's been like a treasured gift that only I could appreciate and would find it hard to explain to somebody who might be closed minded or shallow in nature.

Background Information:

Gender: Male

Date NDE Occurred: 1962

NDE Elements:

At the time of your experience, was there an associated life-threatening event? Yes Illness 'Life threatening event, but not clinical death' Stricken as a small child with rheumatic fever.

How do you consider the content of your experience? Wonderful

Did you feel separated from your body? Yes I clearly left my body and existed outside it

How did your highest level of consciousness and alertness during the experience compare to your normal everyday consciousness and alertness? More consciousness and alertness than normal Time seemed not to exist. Only the moment.

At what time during the experience were you at your highest level of consciousness and alertness? While I was in the meadow.

Were your thoughts speeded up? Faster than usual

Did time seem to speed up or slow down? Everything seemed to be happening all at once Time was of no importance.

Were your senses more vivid than usual? Incredibly more so

Please compare your vision during the experience to your everyday vision that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience. Colors were more vivid, and pronounced.

Please compare your hearing during the experience to your everyday hearing that you had immediately prior to the time of the experience. I could hear the birds in the meadow and the wind as it went through the trees also remember the children laughing but the noises were heard more from my heart than my ears.

Did you seem to be aware of things going on elsewhere? Neither

Did you pass into or through a tunnel? No Only the path through the woods that led to the meadow.

Did you see any beings in your experience? Neither

Did you encounter or become aware of any deceased (or alive) beings? Yes Three or four other children both boys and girls, never saw them before. Dressed in nice clothes like children wear on Easter Sunday.

Did you see, or feel surrounded by, a brilliant light? A light clearly of mystical or other-worldly origin

Did you see an unearthly light? No Only the warm sunlight that surrounded the meadow.

Did you seem to enter some other, unearthly world? Clearly mystical or unearthly realm Beautiful meadow surrounded by lush fields of grass and tall stately trees

What emotions did you feel during the experience? Love, understanding and a sense of belonging.

Did you have a feeling of peace or pleasantness? Incredible peace or pleasantness

Did you have a feeling of joy? Happiness

Did you feel a sense of harmony or unity with the universe? United, one with the world

Did you suddenly seem to understand everything? Everything about the universe

Did scenes from your past come back to you? Neither

Did scenes from the future come to you? Neither

Did you come to a border or point of no return? Neither

God, Spiritual and Religion:

What was your religion prior to your experience? Moderate Christian

Have your religious practices changed since your experience? No

What is your religion now? Moderate Same as above

Did you have a change in your values and beliefs because of your experience? No

Did you seem to encounter a mystical being or presence, or hear an unidentifiable voice? Neither

Did you see deceased or religious spirits? Neither

Concerning our Earthly lives other than Religion

During your experience, did you gain special knowledge or information about your purpose? No

Have your relationships changed specifically because of your experience? Uncertain I do believe I'm more of a gentle soul and find it easier to feel other people's hurt.

After the NDE:

Was the experience difficult to express in words? No

Do you have any psychic, non-ordinary or other special gifts after your experience that you did not have before the experience? Uncertain I was very young at the time but have always felt real compassion and love for people in trouble, and also for animals who need help. It seems the older I get the more I feel this way. Also grow more aware of the wrong doing in my life and feel a heavier sense of remorse for the wrong things I did as a child.

Are there one or several parts of your experience that are especially meaningful or significant to you? The whole experience was meaningful and still is today. I think that the other children around the pond might have been in the need of spiritual help. But this is just a theory of mine.

Have you ever shared this experience with others? No

Did you have any knowledge of near death experience (NDE) prior to your experience? No

What did you believe about the reality of your experience shortly (days to weeks) after it happened? Experience was definitely real At the time and even to this day the experience felt real but I find it odd that the older I get the more the experience feels realer even though many years have passed.

What do you believe about the reality of your experience now? Experience was definitely real

At any time in your life, has anything ever reproduced any part of the experience? No

Is there anything else that you would like to add about your experience? Only that I could never dismiss it as a dream, because it has been forty some years and the experience is still as strong as or stronger than when it happened.

Are there any other questions that we could ask to help you communicate your experience? Please excuse any typos or poor grammar; I'm not the best writer.